Where the trees speak.

Shared Topic: Your Autoblogography

I’ve been playing WoW for almost 6 years now, not quite a day one veteran. This game has been my outlet and escape. It got me though the toughest 4 years of pre-adult life…high school, and continues to be my support in adult life. My passion for WoW was never really something I could share with anyone but my guildmates. Family wasn’t interested and none of my RL friends played so I was limited to who I could talk to about my fun in the game. Or so I thought.

I started following a few blogs when my druid had just turned 80 and I was ready to start gearing him up and raiding. Some friends in my guild referred me to a a few druid-related blogs they knew about and from there I was hooked. I enjoyed reading up on the opinions and experiences that other resto druids have had about WoW. It didn’t take long to discover that there were more than just 4-5 druid blogs in existence. There was a whole global community, players from all around the globe sharing their thoughts on the class and the game itself.

What pushed me to start blogging? I would have to say it was mostly peer pressure, not the bad kind. A lot of people would tell me to “blog about it” when I would go off on druid rants and how I feel about this change and x y z. I’m sure they were really just looking to shut me up, but they had a good idea. Pre-apocalypse seemed like the best time to start, so I made The Grove shortly after Patch 4.0.1 went live.

What challenges have I faced? The biggest hurdle to jump, for me, is getting The Grove noticed. I’m still struggling with this part, but many people have been so kind as to put me on their blogroll and some have even made mentions of my blog in their posts. Another thing I’m struggling with at the moment is content. The game has really slowed down and my guild has halted all raiding until the expansion so the amount of fun and activity is really low. As well, there isn’t a whole lot that’s new at this point. Once cataclysm hits, things will get very busy and I’ll have much more to share. Right now, I just don’t have much in my arsenal to keep it fresh until the expansion.

What are my favorite posts and why? I love posts about things gone wrong. I’ve seen my share of blunders and even been the cause of them. I’ll never forget my first night with Paradigm (my current guild) and we were at LK. They had already had him on farm for months, but this was my first taste of him. Phase 3 hit and I dropped a defile right in the middle of the raid. I thought it was a /gkick for sure, but people were rather jovial about it and didn’t give me too much crap since I was new. It was just the silliness that made it laughable a few weeks later. Things like that just really make me smile because it lets me know that everyone else has noob moments too.

How has blogging affected my gaming? I haven’t really felt the affects so far of being a gamer and a blogger. A few of my friends have come to me with ideas or questions about The Grove. Other than providing some conversation topics, there hasn’t been much else. I think it would be nice to, eventually, be known for the blog on my server.

So far things have been wonderful. Everybody has been so kind as to help me get established in the large community of WoW bloggers. As far as the future is concerned, I really hope that one day my blog is a successful and popular as those that have been around for years. I have a lot of plans and ideas floating in my head right now to make the blog better in cataclysm, but it’s still a few weeks away. I just hope everyone thinks they’re good ideas.